Barriers to Intimate Sexuality: Concerns and Meaning-Based Therapy Approaches

Despite the voracious need for intimate connection, Western society does not promote intimacy, particularly with regard to partner sexuality. Obstacles to sexual intimacy that are discussed include: Media portrayals of sexual and gender role stereotypes, performance-oriented sexual standards, the invisibility of the elderly as sexual beings, and the glamorization of nonrelational sexuality and clandestine affairs. Unfortunately, the sex therapy literature, too, tends to focus on depersonalized and goal-oriented models of sexuality. Paradigms which can overcome barriers and promote intimate sexual connections are required. This article calls for humanistically based changes, in the media and in sex therapy, to satisfy the need for sexual intimacy.